Look on the News page for teaching and learning news from the UK art, design and media higher education sector, including events, calls for papers, funding opportunities and more. See the About us page for information on how to share your news on this blog.

Friday, 25 May 2012

Widening Participation and the Media Student ExperienceAngela Devas, Thames Valley University (now the University of West London)Angela Devas examines the experiences of non-traditional learners applying the analytical methods of Cultural Studies to educational inequalities in higher education. The paper won the first ADM-HEA Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Prize at the MeCCSA Annual Conference 2008. The prize was awarded for the best paper analysing key issues impacting on media, communications and cultural studies higher education.

The aim of the workshop is to increase delegates’ awareness
of OERs and their use in HE in FE. The lack of lecturer time is recognised as a
major barrier impeding the use of OERs and therefore the workshop’s interactive
nature will provide opportunities for direct engagement with a variety of
resources. The event will demonstrate how such resources have been deployed in
HE in FE and will make suggestions as to how such initiatives can be
effectively recorded. The workshop also intends to encourage pedagogical
reflection on the utility of OERs for the delivery of HE in FE. For more information

At this second RAISE Conference the organisers are adopting and applying their definition of student engagement as broad and holistic. The three themes are chosen to capture innovative and exciting research, practice and ideas around: The roles and activities of people in engaging themselves and others; The places and contexts in which SE happens and how this is influenced by these contexts and The practices of students and staff which foster (or impede) engagement.

CALL – for responses to HEFCE consultation on a risk-based
approach to quality assurance

Deadline for responses: 31 July 2012

This HEFCE consultation, drafted with the support of the
Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), sets out proposals for the
further development of the quality assurance system, in particular
Institutional Review in England. The aim of the proposed approach is to put the
interests of students first and to contribute to a reduction in the external
regulation of those higher education providers with an effective track record
of assuring quality and standards.

This symposium is presented by The Salon and IDeoGRAMS in
association with the School of Historical Studies at the University of
Leicester.

With the advent and proliferation of digital culture, humanities research has
changed forever. In an age when the internet allows access to more and more
visual material, much of which has been previously unavailable, academics have
an increasingly rich seam of sources to tap into but, inevitably, questions
must be asked about the ethics of using sources and research which fall outside
the bounds of archives and institutions. At a time when such archives and
institutions are also at risk of marginalisation and cuts in funding, should
academics use material accessed outside these repositories without questioning
its provenance? How may academics and curators negotiate this tension between
utopian academic and cultural impulses and the ethical, financial and political
constraints around visual culture research, copyright and access?

This one-day symposium will explore the use of visual material in academic
research and some of the ethical issues that this raises in the digital age. To
open up the dialogue beyond academia, speakers from a number of national
repositories and archives have been invited to contribute their thoughts on how
to improve shared knowledge and enable wider access to visual media through a
variety of channels.

This event is free to attend, but requires registration with Dr Anna Claydon at
eac14@le.ac.uk.

Drawing on the established fields of usability, user experience and interaction
design, this workshop aims to bring together people to discuss the concept of
'delight' in interface, product and interaction design.

The organisers argue that 'Delight' or 'delightful' design is an aspirational
quality that the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community would do well to
consider when designing and evaluating interfaces. Open-mindedness and
designing for emotion seem critical aspects of a broader call or desire for
design which is ‘delightful’; an experience which engages the user more fully,
an experience which provokes ‘ensoulment’, a term coined by Nelson and
Stolterman to describe an emotional response to a product which results in a
deeply moving feeling of being significantly changed.

This workshop seeks to explore:

what constitutes a delightful interface, and how we can
determine its value

how this can be capitalised on in interaction and
interface design and

how successful realisation of the 'delightfulness' of
interfaces might be evaluated.

'Delightful design' is an aspect of research and user
experience under investigation in SerenA, a multi-disciplinary project to
design interactive systems that create opportunities for serendipitous
connections.

The organsising committee invites contributions that address
the concepts of delightful design; appropriate topics include but are not
limited to:

Case studies and reports of positive emotion or delightful design in product
and interaction design, and visual practices;

theoretical or conceptual discussions around the notion of 'delight' and
unexpectedness in interfaces, technologies and products;

papers which propose a new understanding of user experience and usability
goals;

evaluation techniques that consider the assessment of 'delight' or emotion;

the role of 'delight' and participant engagement within the user-centred design
process;

the changing role of emotional design in interactive
interfaces across media platforms and emergent technologies.

Issues 1 - 12 of Networks published between 2007 and Spring 2011, are still available as hard copies. If you are based in the UK and would like us to send you any issues (free of charge), please contact j.embleton@brighton.ac.uk

Up until issue 12, Networks was a predominantly hard-copy publication produced by the Art Design Media Higher Education Academy Subject Centre; it was distributed to colleagues in art, design and media higher education and readers informed us that the news, features, projects and reviews impact on their teaching practice in positive ways. Many of the articles are currently being republished online, see our FROM THE ARCHIVE posts.

Monday, 21 May 2012

University College London21 June 2012Digital transformations mean that cultural and media organisations now find
themselves in a new environment in which communities of participants interact
to create, curate, organise and support cultural experiences.

This workshop, organised by University of Westminster and UCL, is the fourth in a series of AHRC-funded events where practitioners and
researchers come to consider innovative practices, and develop new ideas
together. (All welcome – attendance at the previous events is not
necessary).

This event considers: How can we use digital tools to explore knowledge in new
ways, and translate ideas and materials into digital arenas in order to gain
new understandings? How can communities of digital participants transform their
own learning, and that of others? What are the uses and implications of this
for museums, schools, and universities? How can learning in the arts and
humanities be enhanced by online creative participation?

Speakers include:

Amy Twigger Holroyd, Keep and Share

Sam Strudwick, Digital Editor, Amnesty International

Kate Lindsay, Learning Technologies Group, University of Oxford

Alison James,
Head of Learning, London College of Fashion

Caroline Bassett, University of Sussex

The day will involve presentations, discussions, and smaller-group
conversations.

The event, including refreshments and lunch, is free,
but registration is essential. (Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research
Council – Digital Transformations Programme).

The Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies is a
peer-reviewed journal that aims to bridge the gap between media and
communication research and actors with a say in media production, i.e.
broadcasters, newspapers, radios, Internet-based media outlets, etc. It is
devoted to research with an applied angle in which a clear link is made between
the prevalent theories and paradigms media and communication scholars work
with, and the real world where media and communication activities take place.
It tackles issues and practices related to the output and organization of media
outlets in our digitized age.

The journal has a particular focus on and interest in
contemporary issues and practices of media firms as they are experienced by
their actors journalists, executives, publishers and proprietors, among others.
Besides scholarly submissions, the editors are interested in articles written
by media actors focusing on topics including their activities, problems,
strategies, guidelines, management and editorial issues, organization, ethical
codes, coverage, distribution, marketing, handling of user-generated material,
etc. The journal is the first scholarly publication giving due consideration in
publishing to material by media actors. Practitioners, for the first time, will
have their articles printed alongside academic papers within the pages of the
same journal.

To celebrate the launch of this new Journal, Intellect are offering Issue 1.1 for free online: http://bit.ly/IQN2hX.

Call for Papers:

The Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies
focuses on practical issues media outlets confront today. Its main interest is
in research and studies that help media actors – journalists, proprietors and
publishers – improve their output. The editors are interested in topics
covering problems media outlets face in our digitized world. Contributions from both academics and practitioners are
welcome. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-Journal,id=220/view,page=2/